Last Favor
by AdAbolendam
Summary: Han froze, wondering if there was a chance that he could had misheard, but the woman's parting words were unmistakable. She had called Rey "Breha." He looked down into the little girl's soft brown eyes and felt his heart stop.
1. Prologue

**Content:** There were so many questions left at the end of The Force Awakens. This is the story of how Han, Leia, Rey and Luke became the people we met again thirty years after the Battle of Endor.

 **Disclaimer:** I doubt Disney would approve of this interpretation of the Star Wars Universe. There are more than a couple not family-friendly elements.

 **Prologue**

 _20 Years ABY_

Han Solo regained consciousness to find himself fighting intense vertigo and a searing headache. His knees were tucked tight against his chest. When he tried to straighten his legs, his feet connected with a furry lump that groaned at the contact.

"Chewie?" He asked.

The wookie moaned piteously, but did not open his eyes.

Han tried to stand up, but his head slammed against a plastisteel ceiling inches above his seat. Something warm and viscous pooled in his right eye, obscuring his vision. When he wiped it away, his hand came back stained red. Blood. A lot of it.

He had been shot.

No, not shot, he remembered. Hit with the business end of a heavy blaster rifle. Then thrown into an escape pod along with his co-pilot.

"Oh, gods," he groaned. The _Falcon_.

He leaned against the viewport and scanned the starfield in search of his ship. Finally, just to the far right, he saw her. The sublight exhaust flared and he watched as the Corellian freighter lurched and disappeared, leaving only a faint after-image of blue light as evidence she had been there at all.

"No! Nononono!"

Han pounded the transparisteel of the viewport impotently.

"Rey!" He yelled. "They've got Rey!"

How was he going to tell Leia?


	2. The Favor

_One Week Earlier_

The docking bay on Tybrisa was chaos. The island was in the middle of the largest body of water on Talaho III and served as the primary base for the Resistance. The movement was still in its adolescence, but, judging from the crowding in the bay, it would not be long before they would need more space to house their growing collection of hardware. X-Wings, Y-Wings, a couple of TIE Fighters (stolen and repurposed for reconnaissance, Han guessed) stood out against a conglomeration of yachts, cruisers and corvettes.

Landing the _Falcon_ was a manoeuvring exercise that took an embarrassing thirteen minutes. By the time the struts hit the permacrete and he had stomped down the ramp into the hanger, packed to the gills with spacecraft and contraband ordnance, his already-lacking patience had long since been exhausted.

"Hey," he barked to the closest deck officer. "I'm looking for Commander Solo, do you know where she is?"

The startled Aqualish dropped her spanner and shook her head.

Han rolled his eyes.

"Hey- hey, kid!" He shouted. A skinny pilot with a mop of curly hair stopped in mid-step and raised his eyebrows at him.

"What'cha need, pops?" He asked with a smirk.

"I'm not your 'pops,' son," Han countered.

The kid sauntered over, his grin growing broader in spite of Han's admonition.

"I'm looking for Commander Leia Solo; I don't suppose you know where I can find her?"

"The Commander got a promotion a couple of weeks back," the pilot informed him.

"Good for her," Han muttered.

"She oversaw a successful raid on a First Order outpost on the Outer Rim. Got a couple of shiny new ships for our trouble."

The pilot indicated the two X-Wings.

"Man, what I wouldn't give to take one of those birds for a spin," he continued.

Han rolled his eyes.

"Look, kid—

"The Major's in the Command Center, Captain," the pilot interrupted. "Just take a right out of the bay and a left at the end of the corridor."

"Thanks," Han grunted.

"Oh, and Captain? Might want to address her as 'Organa.' She doesn't go by 'Solo' anymore."

Han's lip twitched and he took a step towards the cocky pilot.

"Thanks for the advice."

He lowered his voice and leaned in just a fraction more than was strictly necessary.

"And just between you and me, they're never going to let you up in one of 'those birds' if you can't even wear the uniform properly."

"What?" The pilot asked, wide-eyed.

"Not sure how you did it, Junior, but you managed to get that jumpsuit on inside out. Little things like that stand out with the management. Don't worry. You just stick with it. I'm sure you'll get the hang of all of this piloting stuff one of these days."

Han Solo gave him the smallest of winks and cuffed him on the shoulder. Then he turned on his heel and strode out of the bay, leaving an uncharacteristically speechless Poe Dameron in his wake.

* * *

The Command Centre was as busy as the docking bay had been. Flimsiplasts covered workstations and spilled onto the floor. Technicians with faces bathed in the green light of two-dimensional map readouts and holograms chatted into comlinks, oblivious to all but the task at hand. A dozen sentients bustled between desks, shouting coordinates, recording radio activity and fervently scanning their data pads.

Through all of chaos, Han spotted Leia within two seconds of crossing the threshold. Although they still communicated occasionally, it had been five years since he had laid eyes on her in person. Her face seemed thinner than before, her cheekbones more prominent. Her eyes looked sadder somehow. Maybe he was just imagining it. Their last conversation was not a happy one.

 _"He's gone missing from the Academy before," Han Solo had stated to the hologram of his wife._

 _The_ Millennium Falcon _and its pilot were returning from their latest job, transporting hyperdive engine parts to a backwater moon on the Outer Rim. The connection was terrible and her image kept winking in and out, but he could still make out the hollowness in her cheeks, the circles under her eyes._

 _"This is different."_

 _"How?" He demanded._

 _"His room was cleaned out. He stole an X-Wing. Luke and he had words before he left."_

 _"'Had words'? What the hell does that mean?"_

 _The image of Leia closed her eyes._

 _"They fought, Han. Ben renounced his training. He said he doesn't want to be a Jedi. Luke believes he's gone to Snoke."_

 _"No way!" He retorted. "There's no way he'd do something like that! After what Snoke did to you? Ben was furious! There's no way he'd be that-that stupid!"_

 _Leia did not reply. The projection of her face was so impassive, he wondered if the connection had stalled._

 _"Leia?"_

 _"I'm here... I'm sorry, Han."_

 _"Don't!" He snapped. He could handle Leia being a lot of things—sad, icy, angry, even angry with him, but he could not stand her being defeated and apologetic. "He'll be back, Leia. This is just one of his nerf-brained stunts, like the thing last year. He was back within two weeks, remember?"_

 _The hologram nodded slightly._

 _"I hope you're right."_

 _"I'm always right, Swe—Leia," he corrected. "Let me know when you hear from him, okay?"_

 _"Okay, Han."_

 _"Take care of yourself, okay?"_

 _She smiled sadly._

 _"Goodbye, Han."_

Six months had passed since he assured her that their son would return home and they had heard nothing regarding his whereabouts. Halfway through a run to the Inner Rim, he received a message from Leia, along with the coordinates of the current Resistance hideout, asking that he contact her immediately.

Now, she stood in the center of the room, in quiet council with two other senior officers, the calm, stoic eye in the middle of the storm.

Han saw her stiffen and stand a fraction straighter and he knew she had sensed his presence. He leaned against the door-frame and crossed his arms. He watched as she conversed with the officers and wondered if she was drawing this out to get under his skin. When she finally turned to face him, her face was a mask, expressionless and unreadable.

"Hi," he greeted her lamely.

"What are you doing here?" She asked in a quiet, menacing tone.

"You called me!"

"That was two weeks ago, Han."

Time had done nothing to diminish her skill in conveying the enormity of her disappointment in a few syllables.

"I was in the middle of a job," he explained.

"I don't want to know—

"You asked," he replied simply.

Leia said nothing.

"Is it him?" Han asked. "Have you heard anything about Ben?"

Leia shook her head and glanced around.

"We can't talk about this here."

* * *

She palmed the keypad to her quarters and the door panel whooshed aside.

Leia excused herself to the fresher and Han was left alone in her "stateroom." The suite, such as it was, consisted of a dining room table in a small recess, which she had converted into a makeshift office; a bedroom, just big enough for a sleep couch and a dresser; and the fresher. It was scarcely larger than her living space on Hoth.

It made his chest hurt.

This was not what life was supposed to be like for them. They had done their time in the rough, fighting for the good of the galaxy in cramped quarters, through sand, mud, ice and the vacuum of space. Didn't they deserve to hand the torch to someone else? Didn't they deserve better than this? They had _had_ better than this, but they couldn't keep it. He and Leia had burned down the life they built for themselves as surely as if they had struck a match.

Leia came back to this life willingly.

Maybe there was not any room for him in her life anymore. But his heart still ached for what that life had become in his absence.

The fresher panel swished open and she emerged wearing simple white tunic over military-issue trousers, her hair in a single braid down her back.

"It looks busy out there," he said lightly. "You guys preparing for an invasion?"

"Always," she answered. "'High alert' is our default status. But you remember how it is."

"Yeah."

"You're lucky you caught us at all. Another week or so and we are going to have to relocate."

"The base is looking pretty cramped," he agreed.

She nodded.

"And a recent raid has put us squarely on the First Order's radar. Chatter is up on all frequencies. They haven't pinpointed us yet, but it's only a matter of days."

"Why did you call me, Leia?" Han interrupted. " _Is_ it Ben?"

Leia shook her head.

"I told you, Han, he's gone."

He felt the blood leave his face.

"You don't mean—

"No," she answered firmly. "He's alive. But he's beyond our reach now. Ben won't come back unless he wants to."

"So you're just giving up?"

" _I'm_ just giving up?" she repeated. "When was the last time you saw our son, Han?"

"That's not—

"When was the last time you even tried to contact him?"

"I commed him when he left for the Academy! Every week!" Han exploded. "I even visited him."

Han dropped his gaze and collected himself.

"He stopped answering my coms. He didn't want to see me. He gave up on _me_ , Leia. You heard what he said."

"He was a child, Han," she replied. "He wasn't even ten years old when he left to train with Luke. He didn't know what he was saying."

Han looked up at her, but he could tell from the way that she could not meet his eyes that she did not believe her placations.

"I'm the reason that he can't control his powers," Han recited. "Every weakness he has is because of me. His mother, his royal, beautiful, powerful mother, should have married someone strong in the Force, but she married a filthy criminal—

"Stop it," Leia said.

"Who couldn't even understand his son's abilities," Han concluded. "He meant it, Leia. Hell, maybe he was right."

Leia's head jerked up.

"Your son did need a father who could understand him. I sure as hell couldn't. Maybe you should have found yourself a nice Jedi scion to settle down with."

Her answering laugh was hollow.

"And where would I have found one of those? The only Jedi I ever knew was my brother." She paused. "He wasn't right, Han."

"You don't regret…?"

"No," she said simply. "Never."

"Leia—

"I need to ask you a favour, Han. That's why I called you. You don't owe me anything and you are under no obligation to do this. I just… I don't know who else I can trust."

"What is it?"

Leia leaned forward and looked at him with such intensity, he felt his pulse thundering in his ears. If she came any closer, he was going to do something truly stupid. Like leave. Or rip all of her clothes off.

"What I am about to tell you _cannot_ leave this room," she began.

"If you need me, you need the _Falcon_ ," he reasoned. "And in that case, you know I'm going to have to tell Chewie."

She nodded.

"I trust Chewie. But absolutely no one else."

"What is it, Princess?"

Leia let out a breath.

"There is a girl, just a child, who goes by the name 'Rey.' She lives in the Akulti system with a family in a small farming community. She has been under their care for her protection since she was an infant. I've been to see her a few times and kept an eye on her over the past few years. Han, this girl is _very_ strong in the Force and I have done everything in my power to make sure that she escapes the notice of Supreme Leader Snoke."

"But you think she's in danger now," he surmised.

Leia nodded.

"With Ben under his control, Snoke's power, his influence, will only grow. And I believe that Ben himself may have a special connection with her. He may not even realize it. But I can't take the risk that Snoke may use Ben to get to her."

"Why would Ben have a connection to her? Does he know her?"

"They've never met," Leia admitted. "But he may be able to sense her, even though he doesn't even know who she is. She's his cousin. Rey is Luke's daughter."


	3. The Story

"Luke's… daughter," Han repeated.

"Yes," Leia affirmed. "She's nearly five years old. Her mother… What are you smiling about?"

A short laugh escaped him and he rubbed his hand over his face to cover his grin.

"Sorry," he said. "It's just, Luke. 'A-Jedi-should-not-know-any-attachments'-Luke. I guess he wasn't as married to the Old Jedi Code as he made out. Son-of-a-bitch…"

A hint of a smile tugged at Leia's mouth.

"Yes, well, I'm sure he'd be happy to know you approved of his indiscretion. Can I continue?"

"Yeah, sorry."

"The mother was one of his students at the Academy, an older one," Leia qualified. "She came to me, to the Resistance, when she was pregnant, because she was afraid her child was in danger."

"Because of Snoke?"

Leia nodded.

"Luke confided in her regarding my fears about his influence over Ben."

"And she didn't think the kid was safe with a bunch of Jedi?" Han asked.

"Apparently not," Leia said. "She was convinced that the child of a Skywalker would never be safe from Snoke's power, should he learn of its existence."

Han whistled.

"And how did Luke take all of this?"

Leia looked down at her hands and swallowed.

"Luke doesn't know about her."

"Leia!"

"The mother died a few weeks after Rey was born. We didn't have the medical facilities that we have now. She contracted an infection. We didn't know until it was too late. I felt responsible. The least I could do was carry out her wishes to keep the child anonymous."

"Leia, it's his _daughter_ ," Han insisted. "You've got to tell him."

"I wanted to, Han! So many times. I've hated myself for keeping this from him, but it's the only way to keep her safe. I thought it was paranoid too, but when Ben started disappearing from the Academy… I didn't believe for a second that he was just going for a joy-ride for two weeks in an X-Wing."

"You think he's been going to meet with Snoke?"

"I'm certain of it," Leia stated. "And now he's joined him for good. If Snoke could get to Ben even under Luke's eye, then Rey's mother was right. She has to remain hidden until the threat of Snoke can be eliminated. That's why I've stayed with the Resistance, Han. I wanted to be on the front lines and see to it myself that he and the First Order were destroyed. When I was sure Snoke was gone, I had every intention of bringing her to Luke. I had no idea it would take so long. I should have known better than to have underestimated him."

Han let out a deep breath.

"Leia, you've got every reason to fear that bastard. After—after what he did to you," Han said. "But not telling Luke about his kid…"

"You can't make me feel worse about that than I already do, Han. But I made a decision and I can't go back on that now. Especially now that Snoke has Ben with him. He's only going to grow stronger with our son at his side and Rey has never been in more danger."

"What do you need from me?"

Leia gave him a small smile of gratitude.

"There's a couple on Bogdan that have agreed to look after her for the time-being. I trust them. They are ex-Resistance. They mustered out last year after the wife's X-Wing took a hit in the line of duty. She recovered physically, but the Trauma-Shock was severe enough that she couldn't fly anymore," Leia explained.

She used her datapad to activate a holo-projection of the galactic region surrounding the Bogdan system.

"Bogdan," she indicated with her finger, "is a three day journey in the _Falcon_ from the Akulti system. The First Order is closing in on the area near Akulti, but Bogdan is far enough out of their control that she should be safe there, for awhile at least."

"Yeah," he agreed. "It looks good."

Leia shut off the projection and looked up at him.

"It means a lot to me that you are willing to do this."

Han rose from his cramped position in the chair and leaned up against the wall, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"What's the long-term plan, here, Leia? You're near to the top of the chain-of-command of this operation, from what I hear. How close is the Resistance getting to shutting down the First Order?"

"I've been trying to gain support from within the Senate, but there's so much corruption, even when everything is working as it should, which is infrequent at best. I've managed to convince some of the more influential parties to pledge military support in the case of overt conflict. For every victory though, there is another party that blocks my actions. I fear that Snoke has as much influence in the new government as we do, if not more."

"How long, Leia?"

"I don't know," she admitted.

"So you just move Luke's kid around from place-to-place? We all just hide, hoping for Ben to come back? Is that it?"

"I wouldn't think you would have a problem with that," she snapped. "Running away and hiding is what you're best at, isn't it?"

"You're the one who left Chandrila," he accused. " _You_ sold the house!"

"You left first!"

"On a business trip!"

"We both know you weren't coming back, Han," Leia retorted, rising to her feet.

Han shook his head.

"Well, you didn't give me anything to come back to after you sent Ben away and joined the Resistance."

Leia met his accusing stare unflinchingly, but did not reply.

Han gritted his teeth against the mouthful of barbs that he wanted to hurl at her.

In those last few months, after he rescued her from where the First Order held her prisoner, he had stood alone against the rising tide of his son's resentment while she had retreated into herself. The more he tried to empathize with the pain she was feeling, the more she pulled away. She could not remember what had happened during her captivity, but she was still haunted by it. She was a shadow of the woman he fell in love with. She refused to touch him or be touched.

She couldn't even see how distant and hostile their son was becoming. Rather than help Han with Ben, she sent him away to train with Luke, giving up on being a parent as well as a wife. Leia never gave up on anything in her life.

 _How could she have given up on them?_

"Ben left willingly," Leia said finally. "It was his choice to join Snoke. It will be his choice to come back. No one can make that decision for him."

"Do you think he will, though?" Han asked. "I mean, can you- do you _sense_ anything?"

Leia smiled wearily and shook her head.

"Just hope."

Han nodded.

"I hope so too."

He cleared his throat.

"Okay, I'll bring the girl to Bogdan. You'll sync the coordinates with the _Falcon_?"

"Yes, of course," Leia agreed. "Thank you, Han."

"Hey, she's my family too, right?" Han said lightly. He palmed the control for the door panel. "Com-silent?"

"Probably for the best," she acknowledged.

"Fine. I'll be in contact after I'm a ways out from the Bogdan system."

"Clear skies, Han," Leia called after him.

"Let's hope," he muttered as he left, leaving her alone once again.


	4. The Name

Han stomped up the ramp to the _Millennium Falcon_. Turning into the cockpit, he collapsed roughly into the pilot's chair and ran his hand over his tired eyes. An inquisitive growl came from behind him.

"Not too much longer," he replied to his co-pilot's question. "I stepped out to give the girl and her guardian a chance to say goodbye in peace."

 _"Arrgh-harah-huuuh?"_

"I just want to get this thing over with."

 _"Whoorah—agh?"_

Han snorted.

"I don't know. I didn't have a good reason not to. She's my niece, isn't she? Someone's gotta do it. Might as well be family. She's a cute kid. Not her fault she's in the middle of this mess… Here they come."

Han looked out the viewport and stood up.

"Did you set the co-ordinates into the nav-computer?"

Chewie gave an affirmative grunt and took his place in the co-pilot's seat.

"Good. I'll grab our passenger. Then we're out of here."

* * *

"Make sure you are polite to Han and his co-pilot," he could hear Rey's guardian tell her. "And give my regards to the Princess when you see her again."

The girl nodded, but was only half-paying attention. Her tiny hands clutched the bag that held all of her possessions close to her chest, and her eyes grew wide at the sight of the ship.

Han couldn't help but smirk at her reaction.

"She's not that bad, is she kid?" He teased.

Rey blushed, but shook her head with a smile.

"She'll get you there in one piece," he assured her. "I promise."

He held out his hand to the girl.

"Want to help me start her up?"

"Yeah!" Rey said, taking the proffered hand.

As the pair walked up the ramp into the belly of the _Falcon_ , Han felt a tug as the girl slowed her steps and looked behind her.

"It's okay, Sweetie," her guardian said.

Han triggered a valve and the ramp rose up behind them.

"Be good, Breha!"

The hatch closed behind them, sealing them inside the soundproof bulkhead of the ship. Han froze, wondering if there was a chance that he could had misheard, but the woman's parting words were unmistakable.

She had called Rey "Breha."

He looked down into the little girl's soft brown eyes, obscured by flyaway strands of brunette hair, and felt his heart stop.

 _Breha._

Not "Rey", "Breha."

Leia's mother's name. Not the biological mother than she and Luke shared. The name of the Queen of Alderaan. The woman who had raised Leia from infancy and was numbered among the many casualties of the Death Star.

 _Why would Rey's mother name her child "Breha"?_

Han studied the girl's face, running his eyes over her gently bowed lips and full cheeks. Dark brown eyes stared back at him, unblinking, but filled with increasing concern.

A growl from the cockpit made Han jerk and he dropped Rey's hand.

"Yeah, Chewie," he called back huskily. "We're all aboard. Rey's gonna help you out with the take-off. Do me a favour, and keep her at sub-light speed for a minute! I gotta send a message."

Chewie muttered his assent. The ship lurched as the struts retracted.

"Go on up to the cockpit, okay, sweetie?" Han asked the girl. "Chewie may look tough, but he's a softy. Go on and give him a hand."

Rey's hesitant smile broke into a full grin.

"Okay!"

Han listened as the gentle thudding of her footsteps retreated and the door of the cockpit swished closed behind her.

"Leia," he whispered to himself. "Who the hell is that girl?"

* * *

In the privacy of his cabin, Han perched on the edge of his bunk and sent an encrypted message on his datapad to Leia's private extension. They had agreed to go com-silent for the duration of the mission, but if there was a chance at all that she could quiet his suspicions, he was willing to risk it.

 _"H to L; clear skies out your way?"_ he sent. With the Resistance base under possible surveillance from the First Order, all precautions had to be maintained.

He only had to wait seconds for a reply.

 _"Cloudy here, going indoors soon_ , _"_ came her response. _"Weather better where you are?"_

"Sith," he hissed. No chance for a face-to-face then. "Going indoors" could very well mean that the base was being evacuated. Leia would have her hands full. Still, it would only take a few words from her to quiet his doubts.

 _"Cargo safely stowed,"_ he dictated to the datapad. _"Contents marked 'Property of RF of A.' Explain?"_

Minutes passed as he waited for a reply. He was sure that Leia would have no trouble deciphering that his improvised acronym indicated, "Royal Family of Alderaan."

"What are you hiding, Leia?" He asked the blank datapad.

The screen blinked and her answering message scrolled across the display.

 _"I will, but trust me, it's not what you think. Safe travels!"_

Han snorted and tossed the pad behind him onto the bed.

Something sure as hell was going on. There was more to Rey's story than what Leia had told him. Was Rey her daughter? Was she Luke's? Was she _his_? If Rey was nearly five years old she would have been conceived around the time that Ben went to live at the Academy and Han left their home on Chandrila.

He felt slightly ill at the thought. No way would Leia have let him leave if she was carrying his child. Would she? Gods, could she do that to him? Or was the child someone else's entirely?

The idea didn't sit right with him. Not only could he not allow himself to believe that she would have deceived him like that, but there was something about her story that rang true. She seemed genuinely sickened with guilt when he had accused her of hiding Rey from Luke. That part at least, he believed, was real.

So what did that leave him with? Could Rey be Luke _and_ Leia's daughter?

He had now jumped from his wife lying to him, to cheating on him with her own brother. None of this felt right.

Leia was a lot of things. She was unsurpassed in her ability to keep secrets. Not even Darth Vader and all of the interrogation tactics of the Empire could make her reveal information that she chose to conceal. But directly lying to him, or cheating, that was not her. That wasn't his Leia.

Maybe he was worrying over nothing. It was just a name. There were a dozen explanations as to how the girl could have ended up being called "Breha."

But why hadn't Leia said something earlier?

"Gods, Leia, _what's_ 'not what I think'?" He asked. "What am I supposed to think?"

The possibilities turning around in his head led to nothing but dead ends and he was not accomplishing anything sitting in the dark. Plus, he remembered, they were still traveling at sub-light speeds. If they were going to make the drop on Bogdan on time, they were going to have to get moving. Han groaned, pushing himself to his feet. He headed towards the cockpit, yelling the order in Chewie's direction to make the jump to hyperspace. He had three days to get to know his new passenger. Maybe she could tell him what his wife could not.


	5. The Child

"Then what happens if we _accidently_ press one of these buttons when we are in hyperspace?" Rey was asking the _Falcon's_ co-pilot.

Chewie shook his head and growled, _"Nothing is_ supposed _to happen, but I wouldn't take the risk with this ship. She barely works right when we fly her the way she's programed to."_

Han walked into the cockpit to find Rey sitting on the wookie's lap, quizzing him on the functions of the various dials and buttons on the control panel, pointing to each while maintaining a respectful distance. He took his place in the pilot's chair with uncharacteristic hesitation, feeling like he was intruding.

"So, Rey," Han started. "You can understand Chewie?"

"Yes," Rey said slowly. "Can't you?"

Chewie chuckled loudly at that.

"Can it, fuzzball!" He chided his first-mate. "And what'd I tell you about talking trash about my ship in front of the passengers?"

Chewbacca snarled back in kind. Han ignored him.

"Not a lot of people I know can understand Shyriiwook. There a lot of wookies back where you grew up?"

Rey giggled.

"No, Chewbacca is the first I've ever met!" She exclaimed. "But I have to learn languages when I do my lessons."

"And you chose a wookie language?" Han asked dubiously.

"My guardians said it could be important."

"Uh-huh," Han drawled.

 _"Everything okay?"_ Chewie interrupted his interrogation. He nodded to Han's cabin indicating the last-minute communique. _"Anything I should know about?"_

"Not sure," Han admitted. "I'll let you know when I figure it out myself."

Chewie murmured something in Rey's ear and she giggled.

"Hey! I am plenty interesting without having to 'act mysterious!'" Han protested, feigning indignation.

The pair replied with fresh peals of laughter. Chewie ruffled the girl's hair and she leaned back on his chest.

Han rose with exaggerated deliberation.

"Okay, you two look like you're doing fine on your own up here."

He turned toward the door.

"I'm gonna make breakfast, if anyone's interested!"

Rey jumped up and her feet hit the deck-plates with a muffled clang.

"What are we having?"

* * *

"Ewwww… Chewie!" Rey exclaimed.

 _"What?"_ Chewbacca asked. Tendrils of gristle and sinew hung in threads from his teeth and the bloody sauce from a raw nerf-steak coated the fur on his chin.

"It's impolite not to eat with the proper utensils," she informed him.

 _"Maybe I think it's impolite not to eat with your claws,"_ he retorted.

Rey considered this for a moment.

"But I don't have claws."

 _"Guess you'll have to use a fork then,"_ Chewie said. He took another bite of nerf. _"Seems kind of inefficient though."_

Rey's forehead wrinkled and her mouth worked into a scowl, the picture of ambivalence. She eyed her plate with indecision. Han interrupted her before she could pick up a fist full of eggs and start shovelling them into her mouth.

"You don't want to take etiquette tips from a wookie, kid. You've got a new family to meet and I don't think you want to make your first impression showing up looking like that bantha over there." He nodded towards Chewie. "'The Princess' would hardly approve."

He muttered the last comment under his breath, but Rey heard him.

"You know the Princess?" She asked. "Is she your friend?"

"Something like that." He averted his eyes by taking a long swallow of kaff.

"She's my daddy's sister," Rey said, moving her eggs around her plate.

"I heard," Han replied.

"He can't be with me now," Rey continued. "Some bad people are looking for him. We have to wait until the Resistance stops them. Then he'll come back to get me."

Han and Chewbacca exchanged a glance.

"If you know the Princess, do you know my dad?" Rey asked.

Han swallowed.

"Yeah, Rey. I know your dad. He's… he's a great guy. Good friend. It's been a few years since I've seen him though."

Rey's shoulders slumped.

"I haven't ever seen him," she said. "Only holos. He has nice blonde hair. He's very beautiful."

It took every ounce of Han's limited self-control not to spit kaff all over the kitchen. Seeing his co-pilot shaking with silent laughter did nothing to help. He swallowed carefully.

"Yeah, Rey," Han agreed. "He's a good-looking guy."

"Captain Han?" She asked.

"What is it kid?"

"May I please be excused? Chewie said I could help him resequence the repulsor-lifts after I unpacked my things."

"Oh yeah?"

Chewbacca shrugged in agreement.

"Alright kid, let me show you to your bunk."

Rey took his pro-offered hand and slid off of her stool gracefully. He could not help but smile at sound her tiny boots made in the corridor as she struggled to keep up with his long strides. It had been a long time since he had had a child on the _Falcon_. It was funny how it seemed to be the little things he missed the most.

* * *

That evening, Han found Chewbacca lingering at the door to the passenger cabin, watching Rey as she slept. She was sprawled on the bunk, mouth open, snoring softly. Han had no doubt she would sleep long and hard. His co-pilot had thoroughly worn her out.

After helping the wookie with the repulsor-lifts, Rey and Chewie had joined Han in the cockpit and the girl had inundated him with questions about flying. He promised he would give her a chance to try out some basics when they could drop out of hyperspace closer to Bogdan. Chewie took her on a tour of the ship, pointing out modifications and hiding spots, Rey constantly interrupting him with new inquiries. He had always been good with children and it had been a long time he'd had anyone around other than Han who could understand him. Chewie's patience and energy seemed infallible.

Rey, on the other hand, had nearly fallen asleep in her plate at dinner.

"It was a big day for such a little kid," Han observed.

Chewie agreed in a low growl.

Han nodded towards the galley, indicating that they should leave her alone to sleep. Chewie palmed the panel to the cabin shut reluctantly and followed him down the corridor.

"Did we get any mail?" Han asked.

 _"We've got a few incoming messages,"_ Chewie said. _"You want to slow to sub-light to answer?"_

Han shook his head and slid an ale across the counter towards his partner.

"It's probably Ducain wanting to know why we didn't make the drop on time."

 _"You would have to go and piss off an arms' dealer."_

"We'll make the meet," Han insisted. "We'll just be a few days late. Okay, a week late. It's not my fault!"

 _"I just don't see why we couldn't have unloaded the cargo before going to Talaho. Flying around with heavy artillery in our hull and a cub on-board feels like asking for trouble."_

"Look, if I have to choose between Leia or Ducain being pissed off with me, I'd pick Ducain every time. Leia has the sharpest tongue in the galaxy and she doesn't hesitate to use it. Ducain's a business man. He knows he doesn't have anything to gain by threatening his best runner."

Chewie cocked his head skeptically.

"I'll check the messages when we get to Bogdan," Han assured him. "Nothing we can tell him now anyway. I'm not making any side-trips to clandestine artillery fencers with the girl in tow. Even if the buyer is ex-Alliance. "

His co-pilot had to concede that he had a point. He rested his shaggy head on his paw and took a long swallow of ale. If Han did not know better, he would have said that the wookie was sulking.

"We can't keep her, Chewie," Han informed him, only half-joking.

 _"I like her,"_ Chewie whined.

"I like her too," he agreed. "But she's not ours to keep."

 _"Are you sure about that?"_

"What? That's she's not ours? Mine, you mean? No, I'm not," he admitted. "But do you really think she could lie to me about that?"

 _"Leia? No, not really,"_ Chewie said.

The two sat in silence, nursing their drinks and considering the occupant in the passenger cabin. It was too quiet now with the girl not bouncing around at their heels. Han felt haunted by the occupants that had, at one time, been permanent fixtures on his ship.

He imagined Luke, engrossed by his latest find on the holonet, chatting distractedly to Leia about the Old Jedi Order. She would nod, half-listening, watching Ben with a close eye in case she had to intervene to prevent another self-inflicted injury as he learned to crawl, then walk, never managing to avoid the sharp corners and edges that seemed to stick out from every surface of the ship.

The first time Han actually considered the _Falcon_ dangerous was the day he decided to baby-proof every surface from waist-height down. After three hours, he had run out of crash foam and tape and had only made it as far as the cargo bay. Immediately after finishing, he realized that he had inadvertently sealed all of the cargo hatches shut, rendering the ship useless for its intended purpose as a freighter. Not one of his brightest moments as a parent. Or a smuggler.

 _"Rey's probably not your cub,"_ Chewie decided finally.

"Oh yeah? Why not?"

 _"She's too nice."_

" _I'm_ nice!" Han protested.

 _"You know what I mean, she doesn't have a temper."_

Like you. Like Leia. Like Ben.

"Ben used to be nice. He used to be like that." He lifted his chin in the direction of Rey's bunk. "I don't know what happened."

 _"He always had a short fuse."_

Han chuckled mirthlessly.

"I guess that's what happens when two people like Leia and I mate. Add in Darth Vader for a grandfather… Poor kid probably never had a chance."

 _"He could still come back."_

Han took another drink.

"I miss him, Chewie," Han confided. "As rough as things got at the end… we all had some good times together. He was always so passionate about everything he took an interest in. Always running to me or Leia or you with a million questions about this or that, wanting to know everything about everything.

"He just took it so damn personally when he wasn't _the_ best at something. Like whoever had beat him at swoop racing or gotten a higher grade on a test had it out for him. He never had control over his feelings or his abilities. And that lack of control only made him angrier. I guess I could have been more patient or… I don't know. Chewie, I honestly don't know what I could have done differently."

 _"He can come back,"_ Chewie repeated. _"He's young. The young make mistakes."_

"Most of them don't renounce their heritage and turn to the Dark Side though."

 _"You_ did _marry a Skywalker,"_ Chewie reminded him.

Han laughed.

"Yeah I did," he agreed. "Best mistake I ever made."


	6. The Father

Early the next morning, Han banged around in the kitchen, fiddling with the kaffe distiller and synthesizer. Breakfast had been cooked and served, but he lingered in the background, listening as Rey and Chewbacca talked. Rey had asked the wookie to tell her a story about the most dangerous mission he and Han had pulled together. Chewie was expounding at length, amidst constant interruptions.

 _"So, the rest of us hid on the far side of the moon, and the Imperial fleet attacked the ships they_ thought _were real…"_

"But they were just a hologram?" Rey asked excitedly.

 _"Yep,"_ Chewie confirmed. _"And while they were distracted, Han and me flew the ship right over the bow of an Imperial Dreadnaught and torpedoed the engine!"_

"Wow!" Rey said. "And it blew up?

 _"Not blew up so much,"_ he conceded. _"Just kinda burned out and crashed."_

"Wow," she repeated. "Were you scared?"

"Nah," Han broke in finally. "All in a day's work, kid."

Chewie rolled his eyes and hooted.

 _"Of course, you weren't scared. You weren't thinking straight. You were doing it for that woman…"_

"What woman?" Rey wanted to know. "Who? The Princess?"

Han decamped from his position as sentinel and joined the others at the Dejarik table with a plate of muja fruit and toast. He shook his head.

"That was way before the Princess, Sweetheart."

"But you do love her, don't you?" Rey asked slyly.

"You gotta lot of questions kid," Han grumbled. "What makes you say that?"

"You're always talking about her. Her and Ben. Especially when you're alone or when you're watching me and Chewie," Rey explained between bites of toast. "Who's Ben?"

Han looked up at Chewie, who was the picture of wide-eyed innocence.

"What do you mean? I haven't talked about her."

"Not with your mouth," Rey said. "With your head. Like how Chewie talks about how he's worries about you or about his family on Kashyyyk."

"Chewie worries about me, huh?" Han asked, eyes never leaving first mate. The wookie shook his head with a growl.

Rey looked back and forth between the two. The serious expression on her face was marred by a streak of jam that ran from her mouth to her left ear.

"Who's Ben?" Rey asked again.

"He's my son," Han said. "Do you always hear people when they uh, talk, in their heads?"

Rey shrugged.

"Just when they are being loud. Like you guys. You should talk to him. Ben, I mean. I'm sure he'd come back if you asked. You're so nice. I bet you are a really great dad."

Han dipped a corner of his napkin into a glass of water and wiped the jam off of the side of her face.

"How did you manage that?" He muttered, taking more time to clean up her face than was probably needed.

"I wasn't always a great dad, Rey."

Rey did not answer, but the smirk she gave him told him that she did not believe a word of it.

"Captain? May I please be excused? I need to use the fresher."

Han had to smile at the girl's excessive politeness. She was probably the only person in the galaxy to ask if she could "please be excused" from a game table on a smuggling freighter.

"Of course… Rey."

The girl's grin grew wider as she slid to her feet. He had had to stop himself from calling her "Princess." At that moment, she seemed like a miniature version of his wife. It was an unsettling notion.

 _"Guess I was wrong,"_ Chewie said, when she was out of earshot. _"That mind-reading thing? She_ is _just like Ben."_

Han's stare lingered on the spot where Rey had disappeared down the corridor.

"No, she's not."

 _"What do you mean?"_

Han did not reply, but he was glad the girl was not around to hear his mind "talk" now.

 _She doesn't scare me,_ he thought.

* * *

Gannis Ducain stood before a daunting starscape on the prow of the _Dark Fire_ , a retrofitted Cindev battleship that served as his personal transport and flagship for his business in the illegal weapons trade. His eyes darted from star to star, as if he could make the _Millennium Falcon_ and her pilot appear if he searched hard enough.

Three days late. Solo should have made the drop on Tanaab three days ago. He had been late before, but this was pushing it.

Solo was a decent runner and he had yet to run in with the law. Ducain kept him around because of his uncanny ability to avoid trouble. It was that very skill, though, that had made him cocksure and insubordinate. Three days was too long. He had let Solo's infractions slide in the past, but he was not a man of great patience.

"Captain?"

Ducain grunted at his second-in-command but did not turn around.

"We've found her."

He nodded.

"How far?"

"Twenty hours out at .3 past lightspeed. We've mapped their trajectory and we can navigate a route to intercept."

Ducain faced the blue-skinned Twi'lek that served as his first mate and treated her to a rare smile.

"Do it. And go ahead and bring the grav-hook on-line. That monstrosity takes hours to reach full power."

"Will do, sir."

He tilted his head slightly in her direction before turning back to the viewport.

Yes, Solo was a decent runner. But he had other runners. He knew exactly how long his reputation in this business would last if he allowed his contractors to behave as Solo had. He would have to make an example out of the _Falcon_ and her crew.

* * *

Han came back from the cockpit later that day to find his co-pilot elbow-deep in wires and miscellaneous circuitry in the cargo bay. Chewie moaned as he rounded the corner.

"What are you doing?"

 _"I was trying to re-wire the lifts on the sub-level cargo hatches so we wouldn't have to go down and haul everything up by hand."_

"Okay, and how does that end with you covered in half the electronics on the ship?"

 _"I couldn't find the vibro-wrench to open the panel, so I went in through the back. I asked Rey to get it for me, but I got tired of waiting."_

"Where is she now?"

Chewie shrugged, causing a cascade of wires to unspool into an open hatch.

 _"I don't know. That was a while ago. I thought she was with you."_

Han sighed in exasperation.

"Chewie—Just stay there and get yourself untangled. I'll find her."

He marched down the corridor, opening and closing the various compartments Chewbacca had pointed out to their passenger the day before. He called her name repeatedly with no answer.

"Rey? Come on, Sweetheart, this isn't funny!"

A muffled answer came from somewhere above his head. Han looked to the air duct running along the ceiling to his right.

"Rey?"

"I'm here!" The reply was tinny and muted from underneath layers of durasteel and insulation.

"Are you _in_ the air duct?"

"Yup!"

"How—Get out of there, right now!"

"Okay!" Came the cheery answer. "I think I'm just about done anyway!"

 _Done with what?_

Han walked to the circuitry bay which housed the only child-sized outlet to the duct system on the ship. The vent leading to the intricate duct-works was a foot above his head. The shield had been pried off and propped carefully on its side.

The groan of metal and rhythmic thudding announced that the girl was nearing the bay. She peaked down at him through the vent and then lowered herself down backside-first. Han reached up and hooked her around the waist with his right arm before setting her down carefully on the deck. Her white tunic and leggings were now a dingy shade of grey and she was speckled in grime and dust, but seemed unhurt.

"How did you get up there?" He demanded.

"I climbed," she said. "I'm a good climber."

Han considered the distance between the ground and the vent and shook his head in amazement.

"Rey," He said. "You never _ever_ go poking around in the innards of a ship like that! Do you understand? Especially this ship. It's dangerous! Do you have any idea how many wires and sharp edges there are on the _Falcon_? One wrong move in a place like that—

He pointed to the empty duct.

"And you could be cut or even electrocuted! Do you understand me?"

Tears ran in muddy streams down her cheeks as she nodded quickly.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she whispered as she worked her hands into knots. "I was just trying to help Chewie. I'm sorry, Captain. I'm sorry."

Her anxiety and fear drained him of anger, leaving only the familiar twinge of regret that usually followed a particularly spectacular failure in parental care. Han knelt so that he was eye-level with her.

"Rey, I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to yell. I'm not angry with you. I just don't want you to get hurt. I promised your—The Princess that I would keep you safe. I want you to be safe, you understand?"

Rey sniffed and nodded.

Seeing that she still wouldn't look at him, he pulled her into his arms, hugging her to his chest. Rey relaxed and he felt a dampness on his shoulder where she buried her face in his shirt. Holding a crying child in his arms brought back memories heavy with the pain of nostalgia.

 _We can't keep her_ , he reminded himself.

"Hey," he whispered in her ear. "Okay now? We need to go help out Chewie. Your buddy got himself into a mess without you to keep an eye on him."

She choked out a chuckle and pulled back.

"Come on." Han stood up and guided her out of the circuit bay.

"What were you doing up there anyway? You said you were trying to help?"

Rey brightened and nodded.

"I couldn't find the vibro-wrench that Chewie asked for, so I figured we could override the manual hydraulic lift through the redundant system built into the cargo bay wall. So I crawled through the vent and bypassed it the from a secondary command panel."

Han slowed his pace as he listened to her until he had come to a full stop.

"Where did you learn all that, kid?"

"Chewie told me when he took me on the tour of the ship yesterday. Well," she amended. "Some of it he told me. Some of it, I figured out. But it makes since to have a backup system in case your manual system goes off-line, right?"

"Right," Han muttered. "You're a pretty smart kid, Rey."

Rey beamed at the compliment, tears obviously forgotten.


	7. The Promise

**Notes:** The promise is (slightly altered) a line of dialogue in Rey's Force Vision taken from the novelization of TFA by Alan Dean Foster.

* * *

Rey slept with her head buried in a mat of wookie fur, completely unperturbed by the fact that a creature three times her size, who could rip her in half, had her engulfed in his arms. Han had waited until he was sure the two were asleep to risk a glimpse. Sliding Chewbacca's cabin door open a crack, he watched, chagrined, as the pair dozed peacefully in the wookie hammock. Han could not even remember the last time Chewie had even let _him_ into his bunk.

Tomorrow was going to be rough. He could already see his first mate sulking all the way to the arms drop on Tanaab, over the loss of his new best friend. If Han was honest, it was not something that he was looking forward to either. The thought of the quiet that the girl would leave behind when she was gone was disconcertingly oppressive. Han was not averse to quiet as a rule. Sometimes, the only thing that got him through the inevitable chaos that accompanied a supply run was the assurance that he and Chewie would soon be aboard their ship in the silent vacuum between the stars. But more often than not, that peace wasn't enough to fill the hole that his wife and son had left in his life. He wondered if that would ever go away.

 _Did she really need to go to Bogdan?_ It was a dangerous thought. All things considered though, wouldn't she be just as safe aboard the _Falcon_ as staying still? The First Order was not a threat to him. He could out-fly anything they could throw at him.

 _You're about to run an illegal arms deal with a rebel sector on a world under First Order occupation,_ he reminded himself. _That's hardly a safe place for a child. Especially one wanted by Snoke._

Han sighed. Still—

The ship lurched suddenly and he felt himself grasping at the doorframe to avoid pitching forward head-first.

"What the hell?!" He yelled.

Chewbacca opened his eyes with a moan.

 _"What are you doing in my bunk?"_

"We just came out of lightspeed!" Han said.

Chewie groaned, waking the sleeping child on top of him.

 _"How?"_

"I don't know!"

Han ran towards the cockpit with the sleepy wookie trailing close behind. Alarms beeped and red lights lit up the control panel. Han flicked them off one-by-one and tried to make sense of the monitor read-outs.

 _"What happened?"_

Han shook his head.

"We got a grav-proximity warning and she dropped out of lightspeed to avoid collision."

 _"Is the nav-computer working?"_

"It's fine!" Han barked. "There's nothing in this sector that has a grav-well that big. It doesn't make any… Hang on. We're being commed."

 _"What?"_

"Captain Han?" Rey stumbled into the cockpit. "What's wrong?"

Han waved his hand behind him and Chewie held up a finger to his lips to indicate that she should be quiet.

"Ah, kriff!" Han cursed. "It's the _Dark Fire_."

 _"Ducain?"_ Chewie asked.

"Looks like you were right about not pissing off an arms dealer."

The wookie groaned loudly.

"I'll talk to him," Han decided. "Let me see if I can smooth things over."

"Who's Ducain?" Rey asked.

Han glanced over at Chewbacca and the co-pilot took his cue.

 _"Come on, Rey,"_ Chewie said, leading the girl out of the cockpit. _"Captain Han has a mess he needs to clean up. We should stay out of the way."_

Han rolled his eyes and flicked the holovid on. Ducain's broad, unsmiling face popped up on the console.

"Solo," he greeted him.

"Ducain!" Han feigned surprise. "That was a pretty neat trick. Would have appreciated a warning though. You shook us up a bit pulling us out of lightspeed like that."

"Grav-hook," Ducain said, by way of explanation. "Never had a chance to use it on a live ship before. Seems she works as well as was advertised."

"Uh-huh," Han replied.

"I've been comming you for three days, Solo," the dealer informed him. "You didn't make the drop. What happened? Did you get greedy? Find another buyer for the cargo?"

"The cargo's still in my hull," Han said. "I was on my way to the drop."

"Seems like you've gotten a little lost. Is that nav-computer on the blink again? Maybe I should bring one of my techs on board to take a look at it."

"Nav-computer's fine, Ducain," Han drawled. "I just had to make a quick side-trip. It was on my way."

"Side-trip, huh?" Ducain asked. "How about you pop your hatch for me? I want to take a look for myself and make sure the cargo is accounted for."

"Ducain, you know I'm good for it," Han started.

"Might not want to take it as a request, Solo," Ducain warned. "Pop the hatch. I'll be on your ship in 5."

Han flicked off the holovid and swore. He leapt out of the pilot's seat and marched into the galley where Chewie and Rey had camped out.

"We're going to have company," Han informed them.

 _"What the plan?"_ Chewie asked.

"We take care of her first," Han looked toward the girl. "I'll think of the rest as we go."

Chewie groaned loudly.

"You got a better idea, furball?" Han snapped. "You can tell me after we have her stowed."

He held out his hand to Rey.

"Come here, Sweetheart."

Rey took his hand and followed him to the circuitry bay.

"Captain? What's going on?" A whimper in her voice betrayed her nervousness.

"Some men are coming on board and I think it would be better if they didn't see you," he told her.

"Bad men?" She asked.

"They're not the best," he qualified. "We've got into a bit of a misunderstanding. I just gotta explain some things to them. Then we'll be on our way."

Han dropped her hand as they reached the bay. With a grunt, he wrenched off the vent cover that led to the air duct system.

"You want to show me what a good climber you are?"

Rey looked at him dubiously.

"Do you want me to hide in there?"

"Just for a little while," Han admitted. "And don't go anywhere inside the ship. I meant what I said about you not getting hurt. Just sit tight."

Rey stared at him for a moment and then nodded.

"Okay, Captain."

She let out a tiny "humph" and leaped toward the vent. The tips of her fingers caught the lip of the duct opening and she scrambled up the side of the durasteel wall. Once inside, she manoeuvred around inside the tight space and poked her head out of the vent.

"Good girl," Han said. "Now stay put until I come back."

"Captain?" Rey asked softly. "Is everything going to be okay?"

Han mentally steeled himself against any negativity that threatened to leak into his consciousness. If he had a shred of doubt, he knew she would feel it.

"Just stay here. I'll come back for you, Sweetheart. I promise."

The girl brightened just a bit.

"Okay, Captain."

Han closed the vent cover over her and left the circuit bay, willing himself not to look back. He hoped he knew what he was doing.


	8. The Arms Dealer

Han was having a hard time controlling the spasm in his trigger-finger and settled for crossing his arms so he wouldn't go for the blaster strapped to his thigh out of reflex. He needed to diffuse this situation, not accelerate it. But there were four hardened weapons dealers milling about in his ship's hold and they were making him twitchy as hell.

After lowering himself and three of his crew through the hatch, Ducain ordered Solo to produce the ordnance for inspection. Han obliged, noting with grim satisfaction that Rey's bypass for the cargo lifts worked without a hitch. Ducain ran his thick fingers along the deadly machinery, lips moving as he performed a mental tabulation. Reaching the end of the row, he grunted in approval.

"See?" Han asked. "Just as you left them. Sorry you made the trip for nothing. And I'm sorry about the delay, but we plan to reach Tanaab in less than twenty hours. Should be no harm done."

Ducain nodded while Han was speaking, never turning his gaze from the rack of heavy-impact rifle-blasters. He selected one at random. The blaster must have weighed twenty kilos, but he held it in his hands like it was made of feather-weight plastisteel.

"Was a time we didn't need artillery like this," Ducain mused. He threw the rifle across his shoulder and peered down the scope. "All Imperial ordnance was more-or-less the same. Save for that Death Star, of course. But if you wanted to stand your ground against the Imps, it didn't take that much creativity so far as firepower. You just needed a lot of it."

"The Empire was never big on innovation," Han agreed uneasily.

Ducain cocked his head in Han's direction and cracked a half-smile.

"Yeah, well, then you and your friends had to go and finish them off," he said. "That was a game-changer, the Battle of Endor. Imps scattered, re-organized into new factions, each one wanting shiny-new toys, bigger and badder than all the rest. That's okay. It keeps me in business, especially when you've got new rebel cells popping up that also want toys to keep the factions away. But it's a competitive business, Solo."

"Ducain, I get ya," Han said. "Guy like you, the line of work you're in, you gotta keep your edge. You don't need runners that won't deliver on time. I hear you. It won't happen again."

"You're damn right it won't," Ducain growled. Two of his lackeys began to move towards Han and Chewie, armed to the teeth. "You're lucky I like you Solo. Or I'd be taking more from you than just your ship."

Chewie growled, showing two rows of very sharp canines.

"Easy, Chewie," Han murmured, loud enough for Ducain to hear. "I'm sure the Captain and I can come to some sort of agreement. How about you keep my commission for this run, Ducain? We call it even."

Ducain smirked.

"I'm doing the run personally, Solo," he informed him. "I'm not about to lose one of my best fences on the same day I lose a runner."

"Well," Han said with a shrug. "I tried."

Before the two enforcers could take another step in his direction, Han had his blaster out of its holster and had dropped the one closest to him. The shot took half of the man's shoulder with it. Chewie took the opportunity to grab the other lackey's head between his massive paws. He twisted it until it made a satisfying pop and the woman went limp.

The last bodyguard was smarter. He came from behind Ducain with his blaster already firing. Han and Chewie were forced to duck behind the doorframe to avoid the onslaught. Hugging the side of the frame, Han made a motion to Chewie, who nodded in understanding. The wookie darted out from his hiding space and made a run down the corridor away from the cargo bay. He made a tempting target for the shooter, who advanced toward the bay entrance.

Han took advantage of the man's proximity. Jumping out from the safety of the doorframe, Han leapt toward the gunman and swept his legs out from under him. The lackey lost his grip on his blaster as he hit the metal grating and Han kicked it out of the way for good measure.

Chewie had doubled-back from his feigned retreat in time to see Han pull the attacker to his knees and train his own blaster on the man's temple.

"You're gonna want to put that artillery down and head back to your own ship, Ducain," Han announced. "Unless you want this poor bastard's brains splattered all over my deck."

Ducain frowned and relaxed his grip on the blaster-rifle.

"You're right, Solo."

Before Han could react, Ducain raised the blaster and shot the man out of Han's grip. Han jumped back as the corpse that had been his leverage slumped to the ground.

"I told you," Ducain said. "I don't need anyone in my employ who's not doing their job."

He punctuated his statement with a second blast that flew past Han and hit Chewie in the upper arm.

Han wheeled in the direction of his co-pilot.

"Chewie!"

The wookie stumbled and moaned. He clamped a massive paw over the patch of blood and singed fur.

 _"Han, watch out!"_ Chewie warned him.

Han turned in the direction of his attacker only to see the butt of the blaster coming towards his temple.

Ducain watched in disgust as the pilot crumpled to the deck unconscious.

"You're lucky I like you, Solo," he muttered. "But I can't have you cluttering the deck of my new ship."

He hauled the limp forms of the wookie and the pilot to the escape pod and cycled the airlock. They would have twenty-four hours before their O2 ran out. Ducain didn't doubt Solo would figure a way to fight another day. The smuggler was a survivor. Ducain admired that. But the man broke a deal and fair was fair. However Han Solo made his way in the galaxy from now on, it would be without the _Millennium Falcon_.


	9. The Irving Boys

The lunar satellite of Rishi was a frozen hellscape. The permafrosted surface was pockmarked with craters, each filled with icy water and a host of predatory marine life. Poe Dameron had been there for an hour and missed the crowded base on Talaho III already. There was plenty more room to spread out on this ice-ball, but at what cost? He could just imagine spending the next couple of years hiding in his X-Wing with the heating unit on full blast, yearning for the comparative warmth of the abyss of deep space.

He shoved the rest of his possessions into a duffle and started down the ladder attached to his ship.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and the First Order won't take as long to find us this time," he muttered to himself.

Descending the last rung, he turned around to find himself face-to-face with Leia Organa.

"Major!" He exclaimed. "I didn't, uh, I didn't mean any of that."

Leia waved his apology away.

"Don't worry about it, Poe. I was thinking the same thing. It's not exactly my first choice either."

Poe grinned broadly. He liked the Major. She radiated an authority that would have pretense of formality on her part redundant. Her service record, commanding presence and royal baring paired with a remarkably low tolerance for bullshit made her well-liked and respected by all of the troops. Poe had been one of the few pilots that had been in the Resistance long enough to catch a glimpse of the deep-seated compassion behind her frosty exterior. That combination of passion and strength had endeared her to him not just a little bit.

"What can I do for you, Major?"

Leia's lips were pressed into a thin line.

"It's a personal favor, Poe."

"Will it get me off of this snowball?"

She nodded.

"Name it!" He said.

"I've just got an emergency distress signal from Han Solo's ship, the _Millennium Falcon_ ," she informed him. "The escape pod was jettisoned and the transponder beacon was activated. The pod is located outside of the Bogdan system. Poe, they've got 20 hours of oxygen. Maybe less."

Poe nodded.

"I'm on it, Major."

"You can use one of the freighters," Leia said. "Poe? Can I count on you to bring them back discretely? I don't need this incident broadcasted all over the base."

"You know me, Major," Poe said with a smirk.

Leia returned the sentiment with a weary smile of her own.

"I do. Thank you, Poe."

The pilot nodded and jogged off in the direction the freighter dock, grinning like an idiot. Like she even had to ask. A mission to save Han Solo after he got his ass in a sling? That, he would do just for fun.

* * *

Rey let out a cry and clamped her hand over her mouth when Chewie was shot. She heard his moan and felt his arm burn as the blaster bolt struck him. Tears flowed over cheeks and hands when Han was struck with the blaster. Then they were gone. They were not dead, but they were not on the ship anymore. They left her.

She was alone.

The _Falcon_ shuttered to life as someone activated the sublight engines.

Somewhere, in the corner of her mind, she could hear someone call her name over and over. Then the voice was gone as well.

Rey curled up in the vent and sobbed.

* * *

The jolt of the landing struts hitting solid ground woke her up. She had no idea how long she had been asleep. Her throat was dry and her neck hurt from sleeping on the hard metal duct. She had to pee.

The whine of the entrance ramp being engaged was followed by the stomp of heavy footsteps. Then the ramp retracted and the ship was silent. Rey wondered how long the ship would be unoccupied. Maybe she could make it to the fresher without being seen. She positioned her feet on either side of the vent covering and leaned back to kick it open when a voice stopped her.

Heavily accented Basic filtered through the ship. Rey couldn't quite make out the words, but the voice was soon joined by another. Two males, Rey decided. And they were arguing about something.

The voices grew louder as the two men came closer to the circuitry bay. Rey's breath came in short gasps.

"How long will it take to hot-wire this thing?" One voice asked.

"How long will it take you to shut up and give me a hand with this?" The other replied.

"Hey, I didn't tag this ship! You want this piece of junk, you figure out how to boost it!"

"You think the owner's going to care who tagged what?" The second voice snapped. "If you get caught, you're just as busted as me."

"Fine!" The first man relented. "You take the cockpit. I'll take the circuitry bay. If we can't get her to lift in five, I'm calling it. The owner looked like a mean son-of-a-bitch."

Rey watched with wide eyes as a lanky figure with light-purple skin entered the bay and yanked open a panel at random.

"Gav!" He shouted. "This wiring is a mess! There's so many mods on this damn thing, nothing's where it's supposed to be! We'll never get it to…"

His voice trailed off as the ship rumbled to life.

"Hah!" His companion shouted from somewhere near the front of the ship. "What'd I tell you, Jor?"

The man, Jor, slammed the panel shut in response.

"Alright," he called back. "Gloat later! Just get us out of this system. I got a bad feeling about—woah! What was that?"

The _Falcon_ shuttered violently. Rey hugged herself, listening with growing trepidation as the ship filled with the shriek of alarms.

Jor stumbled out of the bay in the direction of the cockpit.

"Anti-aircraft bolt!" She heard Gav yell. "That 'mean son-of-a-bitch' took a chunk out of us!"

"Kriff! Alright, bring the forward stabilizers on-line…"

Their voices were muffled as the cockpit panel closed behind them.

Rey rocked in the dark of the air duct listening to the dull thumping sound her head made against the metal wall. Chewie was gone. Captain Han was gone. The Princess did not know where she was. Daddy would not know how to find her. What was she supposed to do now?

She could feel the ship righting itself. The _Falcon_ would not explode because of the blast. That much she knew. But there was a thrumming coming from the sublight engine that was not there before. If the engine was damaged and the warnings had been disabled, the ship could break apart if they tried to enter hyperspace.

They would know that though, wouldn't they? They were adults. And they were clearly used to stealing ships. Surely they knew how to fly them.

But what if they didn't know?

What if they pushed the ship to lightspeed and the whole thing exploded?

Captain Han was coming back for her. He promised he was coming back for her. She knew he meant it. She had to keep herself and the _Falcon_ safe so he could keep his promise.

Rey's nails cut into her clenched palms as she tip-toed down the corridor to the cockpit. Neither of the pirates noticed as the panel slid open and she slipped inside.

"Coordinates locked in the nav-computer?" Gav asked.

"All set," Jor confirmed. "Ready for lightspeed on my mark."

Rey screeched as Jor reached for the levers to initiate the hyperdrive.

"What the hell?"

Two identical faces with deep-set black eyes and purple flesh turned to face her.

"Who the hell are you?" Jor challenged.

"The ship will blow up!" Rey exclaimed.

"What?" Gav asked.

"Look!" Rey ordered and pointed to a blinking light on the control panel. "You turned off the alarms when the ship was hit. That light means the sublight engine relay-coil has been damaged! If you go to lightspeed, it could set off a chain-reaction and blow the hyper-drive motivator!"

Jor followed the direction of her finger and nodded slowly.

"Sith! She's right."

"Who the hell is she?" Gav asked again.

"I'm Rey," she answered.

"She's a stowaway," Jor concluded.

"I am not!" Rey said indignantly. "You guys are the stowaways! I was here long before you!"

Gav glanced at his brother.

"She has a point."

"We'll deal with her in a minute," Jor decided. "Right now, we gotta figure out where we can get to at sub-light speed with a ship that's probably leaking fuel and life-support as we speak."

Gav looked over at the girl.

"Rey? It's Rey, right?" He asked.

She nodded.

"Sit down for a few minutes while my brother and I have a few words."

Not seeing that she had any other options, Rey climbed into the jump-seat and strapped herself in. The brothers pulled up a holo-map of the quadrant and debated with each other over their next move.

"There," Gav said decisively. He pointed at a system with three planets circling a bright giant sun.

"Where? Jakku? That place is a junkyard!"

"Perfect place to unload this piece of trash then," Gav said.

"This ship isn't trash!" Rey protested.

"Can it, kid!" Jor snapped.

Rey crossed her arms and glared at the brothers as they plotted their course to Jakku. She did not say a word for the three hours it took the _Falcon_ to hobble to the Jakku system. If she stayed angry, she realized, she wouldn't have to feel the fear of the hopelessness of her situation.

Jakku was a desert, devoid of anything but sand and the charred remnants of derelict starships. The sunlight that streamed in through the viewport hurt Rey's eyes.

"Now what?" Gav asked his brother, indicating Rey with a flick of his head.

"I've got an idea," Jor said. "Stay put."

The slim humanoid pushed past Gav and walked out of the cockpit. Warnings of danger screamed in Rey's head. She hugged her arms to her chest and tried to drown them out.

 _It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. Captain Han is coming back. He promised. It's okay. It's okay. He's coming back. "I'll come back for you, Sweetheart. I promise." That's what the Captain said. It's going to be okay._

Rey did not hear the panel slide open again and she jumped in her seat when she realized that Jor was standing right next to her. He was holding one hand behind his back. She started to duck out of his reach, but an arm shot forward and Jor grabbed her behind the neck. In the hand that he had hidden, he produced a hypo-syringe and aimed it at her forearm. Rey struggled and shrieked, but Jor held her down and plunged the hypo into her soft flesh. Rey screamed as loud as she could and Jor released her.

"What did you give her?" Gav yelled at him.

"Relax," Jor replied. "It's just a sedative. She'll just pass out for a few minutes."

Rey realized that she was already having trouble focusing. The small cockpit looked like it was expanding and contracting all at once. She was not panicking anymore though. Actually, everything felt fine. She was just a little tired. Maybe this was all a dream anyway. It did not seem real. Someone was shouting. She did not understand why. She heard their words, but they did not make any sense. Nothing was making sense.

"…Adult dosage… idiot! …what that will do to her? …brain damage… kill her!"

Who was talking? Who were they yelling about?

The girl decided it did not matter. Everything was fine. She just needed to sleep.

* * *

The first thing she noticed when she woke up was the heat. It was hot. Hotter than she could ever remember being. Rey opened her eyes and saw sand and sky. Where was she? How did she get here?

Rey sucked down air in deep, panicked gulps.

She could not remember anything!

The more she tried to focus, the less everything made sense. Images swirled in her head, colliding and shifting. A woman with sad, brown eyes, a house with a warm fire and a homey kitchen, a holo of a smiling man wearing a pilot's uniform, a ship, a large, fuzzy creature that mused her hair and made her laugh… colours, feelings, voices, all of it jumbled together in a meaningless cacophony.

Something nudged her back.

Rey sat up to find herself looking at the ugliest humanoid she had ever seen. His fat, pink face looked down at her. His mouth was frozen in a permanent frown. He barked something at her, but Rey did not understand.

She stumbled to her feet and the creature mumbled something else.

She shook her head.

"I don't understand you," she said.

The creature shrugged and muttered some more.

"Please, where am I?" She asked. Something else occurred to her. There had been a man. She remembered that much. A man with hazel eyes and a scar on his chin. Who was he? Her father?

"Where's my family?" Rey asked the corpulent humanoid.

He grunted and pointed to the sky. Rey could make out the lights of a ship's engine heading for the upper atmosphere. She shouted and started to run after it, but the creature caught her arm.

"Come back!" She yelled as the ship gained altitude.

Rey screamed until her throat was raw. She fell on her knees into the hot sand and cried. From somewhere, in the back of her conscious, she heard the echo of a memory.

 _"Just stay here,"_ the voice assured her. _"I'll come back for you, Sweetheart. I promise."_

She swallowed forcefully and swiped a hand across her cheeks, brushing off her tears. It would be alright. Her family would come back for her. She just had to stay here a little while. They would come back. They had promised.


	10. The Apology

The beeping and whirring of medical equipment woke him up, but Han did not open his eyes. If he did, there would be light and more pain. If he opened his eyes, he would see her. He would have to tell her how he lost Rey. How an arms dealer, who he cheated, had tracked him down, stolen his ship and the girl along with it. How they could be anywhere in the galaxy by now. How he had no idea if Rey was alive or dead.

And it would be the last time he ever saw her. She would never be able to look at him again.

He sighed.

"I know you're awake."

The voice came from his right side. He rolled over and sat up to meet her at eye-level. He could not take a beating lying down, no matter how much he deserved it.

Leia glanced at his hairline.

"How's your head?"

"It's fine," he lied. "I can't feel anything."

She nodded.

"Chewie told me what happened."

"How is he?"

"Healing fast," she answered. "He was discharged yesterday. Poe brought you in three days ago. We got a hail from the escape pod's emergency transponder."

Han nodded. The kid had been all too happy to pull he and Chewie from that claustrophobic prison with less than an hour of oxygen to spare. If he had had the strength, he would have knocked that cocky grin off the pilot's face.

Now, he wished he were back on that ship. Sharing a cramped freighter with Poe Dameron was significantly preferable to the situation he was in now.

"Leia…" He had no idea where to begin. There was no apology that could fix this.

"You two were lucky to get out alive."

Han did not comment. There was no affect behind her words. He studied her face, looking for any indicator of emotion. There was nothing there. Her eyes looked through him, empty and unseeing.

"Leia, I'll find her," he said, desperate for a reaction. "I'll get her back."

"How?" The faintest trace of skepticism colored her tone.

"The _Falcon_ has a long-range transponder beacon, in case of something like this," he said in a rush. "I activated it before we were boarded. It can't run a trace when the ship is on-planet, but as soon as she lifts, I can track it anywhere in the galaxy. It's wired on a redundant system, so it won't switch off until I input the code manually."

Leia's eyebrow lifted a fraction.

"Okay, but what if she doesn't lift? What if the _Falcon_ is dry-docked permanently? Or stripped for parts?"

They both knew it was the most likely scenario. To anyone who did not know her history or the multiple modifications she had undergone, the freighter had more value in pieces than as a whole. The muscle along Han's jaw twitched at the thought.

"Well," he said slowly. "Then it'll take a little longer to find her."

Leia sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"I didn't mean for this to happen, Leia."

"I know."

"I know how important Rey is to you."

Leia looked at him sharply out of the corner of her eye. Han forced himself to meet her stare.

"She's yours, isn't she?" He asked.

Leia did not blink.

"Does it matter now?"

"It matters to me."

"She's my daughter," Leia confirmed.

Han let out a long breath.

"You knew I would find out," he stated. "Once I knew her name…"

"I wanted you to know. I've wanted to tell you for a long time," she said. "I knew you would put the pieces together."

"Why bother with that sithspit story you told me? Why not just say it?"

"It's not that simple, Han."

He swallowed.

"She looks just like you."

"I think she looks more like my mother," Leia said. "Padme, not Breha. They could have been twins."

Han struggled with the next question. He did not think there was any chance. But he had to know, just in case he was wrong.

"She's not yours, Han," Leia whispered. "I wished she was. You have no idea how much I wished that."

"I did the math," he said. "If she really is almost five, you would have gotten pregnant right before I left."

Leia closed her eyes and Han watched as the color drained out of her cheeks. He felt his pulse ratchet up to a staccato. If he was catching her in a lie, accusing her of cheating, why did _he_ feel guilty?

"Not right before you left," she answered and turned to look at him. "Two months earlier."

Han thought back to the events of those last few months as his life crashed down around him. He left three weeks after Leia sent Ben to the Academy. His son had always been a handful, but in those last few months, he was a nightmare. Yelling at Han, hurling accusations, throwing furniture around, especially when Han would not let him come along… Oh sith. When Han would not let him come with him when he led a raid on the nascent First Order. A raid to rescue his wife.

"Oh gods, Sweetheart," Han murmured. The weight of the realization felt like a block of permacrete on his chest.

Leia nodded. That was about the only thing that could be said.

Rey had been conceived during the week Leia was the prisoner of Supreme Leader Snoke.


	11. The Truth

"I didn't lie to you when I said that there was very little I remembered from the time I was taken by Snoke. The toxicology report found traces of a drug known to cause temporary anterograde amnesia. The medic said that it was probably administered as soon as I was taken. It wasn't that the memories were locked away, Han. They were blocked from ever forming."

Han nodded. He remembered their brief trip to the medical center after she returned. A cursory examination and tox screen was the only thing she would agree to have performed. Leia had never been overly fond of medical procedures after being interrogated by her late father on the Death Star. Han had to practically drag her to the med bay to give birth to Ben.

"I worked with Luke via holonet, trying to find some way to use the Force to remember. I had this horrible feeling that I had learned something important, some kind of warning. But the memories just weren't there.

"Gradually, I managed to piece together thoughts and feelings I had from when I was first taken."

A sense of dread filled him as he listened. She kept this from him this for years. She had been protecting him for a reason.

"He, Snoke," she clarified. "He had tried to read me, read my thoughts."

"Yeah?" Han asked.

"But he couldn't. Luke says I have natural barriers."

Han smiled. He could have told her that. He had experienced those "barriers" first-hand.

"Vader could never read me, not even after the drugs," Leia said. "I don't think Snoke had any more luck than him. But _I_ was able to read him. I could hear things he was thinking. He wanted Ben, Han. He had been watching him for years. I don't know for sure, but he may have already contacted him. I couldn't get anything more than that. I just remember feeling, _knowing_ , when I got back, that Ben was in danger.

"You mentioned something about that," Han said. "But you couldn't tell me why. You weren't… very forthcoming after you came back."

"No," she agreed. "I was not myself. I was obsessed with finding out more about Snoke's plans for our son. I only ever remembered two more things. The first was the impression I had that he was very old."

"How old?"

"Ancient," she replied. "He had seen things. Not just the fall of the Old Republic and the extermination of the Jedi. He had seen the Republic being built. He had watched as the civilization of the galaxy as we know it was formed. Snoke was there when the first Jedi had learned to use the Force. He was there with them."

Han found it difficult to contain his skepticism.

"Are you sure?" He asked. "I mean, that would make him thousands of years old. Do you know of any species that lives that long?"

"No," she replied. "Not naturally."

"So Snoke's a Jedi?" Han asked.

"No," Leia stated. "I don't know what he is. He watched the Jedi rise and he may have been one once… But he's not anymore."

"You've told Luke this?"

"Yes."

"What does he think?"

Leia shook her head.

"He knows even less than I do. There's some vague mentions in the chronicles of the Order to an "ancient evil," but nothing that points to what it actually is. Most of the history of the Jedi was expunged along with the Order."

"Okay," Han said. "What's the second thing?"

"The second thing," she said haltingly. "Is that he had a contingency plan."

"In case of what?"

"In case he couldn't turn Ben to the Dark Side. He wanted a Skywalker. Someone of the bloodline of Anakin. And if he couldn't have Ben, then he was willing to create one."

Han swallowed as vomit crept to the back of his throat.

"And he did," she concluded.

"When did you know, Leia?" He asked gently.

"It took about a month," she answered. "I had a feeling and a trip to the med-center confirmed it. I wanted to run a DNA panel, but I knew if I had one at the center, it would be logged and permanently recorded. So I went to a private clinic. The center was able to pinpoint time of conception within a 72 hour window. I knew there was only a slim chance but I hoped the baby was yours. And, it if it wasn't, then I could at least learn the identity of my rapist."

Han's features contorted in disgust and anger. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the railing on his bed. If he didn't control himself, he was going to rip it off its hinges.

"Who was it?" He managed.

"I wasn't raped, Han," she said. "At least, not the way you're thinking."

"What the hell does that mean, Leia?"

"It means that Rey's father could not have raped me, because he wasn't there," she explained. "I told you the truth before. Luke is Rey's father."

The bed creaked violently as Han pulled himself to his feet.

"Where are you going?"

"Fresher," he muttered.

Han crossed the room and the panel of the fresher locked behind him. He clung to the cold, white edge of the sink as the room swam around him. Pulses of pain thundered around the bruised gash on his temple. A couple of dry heaves brought up only a bitter-tasting liquid. When his vision cleared, he took at himself in the mirror and winced. He looked only marginally better than he felt.

"I'm sorry, Leia," he whispered to himself. "I'm sorry for everything."

"Are you okay?" She asked as he emerged from the fresher.

 _Am_ I _okay?_ He wondered. _What about you?_

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked. "I would have stayed! I could have helped. You didn't have to go through that alone."

"I know you would have stayed," she answered. "That's why I didn't tell you. You think that's what I wanted for you? For us? Things were bad enough without you having to take care of me while I was carrying a child that wasn't yours."

"You could have terminated," he offered. It was a question rather than a statement.

"I could have," she said. "I might have. If she wasn't his."

Han looked at his feet. He knew that fact would not have stopped a lot of people. But then again, the Skywalker twins had never had what he would call a "normal" sibling relationship.

"I love him," she said simply. "Snoke may have twisted our bond into something perverse, but that doesn't change the fact that I love my brother and I wouldn't hurt anything that was part of him. And Snoke knew it too. That was why he let me go."

" _Let_ you?" Han demanded. "I broke into that facility with fifteen trained operatives, Princess. He didn't exactly hand you over."

"Han, do you think someone as powerful as Snoke let's anything happen by accident?" Leia asked. "He allowed me to be rescued because he knew it didn't matter. His 'creation' would be safe as soon as I found out who the father was."

"And you never told Luke?"

"How could I?" She asked. "I knew we couldn't keep her. She wouldn't be safe with either of us. I couldn't tell him what Snoke did to me. He would blame himself. Never mind that he didn't have anything to do with it. Luke's just like that."

He had to agree with her on that point.

"So there's nothing… wrong with her?" Han asked. "You know, because of-

"No," Leia said. "And I don't think that's a coincidence either. It wouldn't be difficult to compensate for deleterious genes that occur in these cases. Anyone with a DNA sequencer and a rudimentary knowledge of human genetics could do it. Snoke knew what he was doing. He wanted all of the power of the Skywalker line. A tool that he could manipulate for his own purposes. What he didn't count on was me disappearing."

Han leaned against the edge of the bed.

"Is that why you joined the Resistance? To hide her?"

"Partly," she admitted. "And to hide myself. And to be part of the operation that would bring the First Order and Snoke down. It was the only way to keep my children safe."

"Then why send her away?"

"Because if the Resistance was discovered, I couldn't have her with me. He can never find her, Han."

"Gods, Leia."

Han began to chuckle.

"What about this can you possibly find funny?" Leia demanded.

"Everything you do is so noble and self-sacrificing," he said. "Have you ever done a damn thing in your life just for you?"

Leia had to smile at that.

"Sure I have. I married you, didn't I?"

"Yeah, and look how that turned out."

"That's why I don't make a habit of it," she shot back. "Of course, the things I do for other people don't seem to work out well either."

"It wouldn't have been that bad, Leia," he insisted. "We could have left together, the three of us."

"Rey's an amazing child, isn't she?" Leia said, knowingly.

"It's not fair that you couldn't keep her."

"No it's not. But 'fair' doesn't seem to matter."

"I'll find her, Leia," he said. "I promise."

Her face fell and her eyes clouded over.

"She could be anywhere in the galaxy, Han."

"I'll find her," he repeated.

Leia nodded, but he knew she didn't believe him. Both of her children were lost and he held a good part of the blame. He sighed and stood up.

"I'm gonna go find Chewie, make sure he's doing okay."

He squeezed her shoulder as he brushed passed.

"Han?" Leia called behind her.

"Yeah?"

"If you do find her, don't tell her any of this. Just bring her back."

"Sure, Leia."

He lingered a moment longer, but when she didn't turn around, he turned and walked away.

There was nothing left for them to say.


	12. The Message

_Three Years Later_

Three years passed before he heard from her again. A flashing blue light on the control panel in the trade frigate's cockpit indicated an incoming message. Leia gave him the ship, the _Gambler's Ruin_ , from the Resistance's meagre surplus after he lost the _Falcon_. He hated everything about it, from hull to cockpit, but he was in no position to be ungrateful.

"Won't somebody miss this?" He had asked her.

Leia shook her head.

"We don't have a lot of use for a trade frigate at the moment," she said. "If it comes up, I'll take care of it."

He had suspected at that point, she just wanted him gone.

Han sighed and punched the indicator light. A holo of Leia blurred and focused in front of him. She began talking before he had a chance to recover from surprise. It was a recording.

"…no easy way to say this," the holo was saying. "Two weeks ago, I received a shipment from Luke's Academy. It took me that long to track you down. The package was R2-D2. He played a recording from Luke and then completely powered down. I've got some techs working on it, but it looks like Luke sliced him somehow. Any information he is carrying is inaccessible. All I know is what is in the message. It's about Ben, Han. And…"

The image paused.

"It's bad, Han. I don't know what else to say, so I've forwarded the recording to you. I… If you want to contact me, my coordinates are at the end of the message. Goodbye, Han."

Han's fist clenched into a ball as his wife's face was replaced with Luke's. He squinted to make out the Jedi's features. The recording was shaky and Luke's face was illuminated by a flickering, orange glow.

 _"Leia,"_ the message started. _"Han, I hope you are there too. Ben came back to the Academy tonight."_

Han's heart was beating so violently he thought his ribs would break.

 _"He wasn't alone. He's been put in command of a band of soldiers of the First Order. They called themselves 'The Knights of Ren.' They attacked the Academy when I was away meeting with the Senate on Hosnian Prime. When I came back, the Temple was on fire. A few students made it out. They were… cut down before they could escape. One student survived long enough to tell me what had happened._

 _"There's nothing left here, Leia."_

The image of Luke's face belied no emotion. Ben, Han's son, had hollowed him out, left him empty. All those years of work, rebuilding the Jedi Order, all of those students, children, dead. By his son's hand.

 _"I'm leaving,"_ Luke continued. _"Leia, if you're right about Snoke, about his ancient origins, and I believe you are, then I am going back to the source. I'm going to find the First Jedi Temple. The Empire worked long and hard to destroy every remnant of the Jedi's history, so I don't expect to return soon._

 _"Snoke is the key. If there is any way to defeat him, the First Temple should have the answers to his undoing. If I can destroy Snoke, then Ben will be free of his influence. He'll be free to make his own choices."_

The image flickered and resolved.

 _"…not be easy. Snoke has Ben convinced that his destiny is to fulfil Vader's legacy and, in doing so, wishes to restore the Empire. Ben has fixated on this idea and has turned to Vader as a role model. Even with Snoke gone, I don't know that this is a delusion that can be broken. But I have to try._

 _"I have failed you in every way that I can, Leia, Han. I only hope that, if I return, it will be with the tools to redeem myself in your eyes. If I don't make it back, know that I love you both, and that I am more sorry than I can ever say."_

A shadow moved across the face of the holo. Luke's mechanical hand, stripped of synthflesh, pressed a toggle above the recorder and the image disappeared. Han flicked the blue light off before Leia's coordinates could be transferred. He stared blindly into the star-flecked blackness ahead of him, feeling as numb as his brother looked in his final transmission.

"Vader," he whispered. After all he and Leia had done to try to expunge the memory of the monster that had plagued their family for so long, Ben had turned to him in the end as an idol. It hurt more than a shiv in the gut.

 _"Everything okay?"_ Chewbacca growled, entering the cramped cockpit.

"No," Han said. "Ben's gone. My son is gone. He's not coming back."

Chewie howled loudly at the news. He garbled a question in Han's direction.

"No," Han decided. "She doesn't need to see me. It won't do any good."

The wookie squeezed in to the co-pilot's seat.

 _"So, do we go back to Nar Shaddaa? You wanted to check out that lead…"_

"It's a dead end, Chewie. They're all dead ends. We've been searching for the _Falcon_ between jobs for years with nothing to show for it."

 _"Arrarhgh?"_

"Even if we did find the ship, the chances that the girl would still be anywhere near it are one in… a very large number. If the _Falcon_ ever does lift out of orbit, the beacon will hail us. Until then, we've got a contact on Ryloth that needs seeing to. 50,000 credits for transporting Old Republic artifacts isn't something we can afford to pass up right now."

Han programmed the nav-computer for the Ryloth system.

"If Leia and Luke want to topple renegade governments and chase ancient myths, that's their business," He muttered.

He braced himself as the hyperdrive engine shuttered to life.

"I've wasted enough of my life fighting battles that can't be won."

There was a flash of blue light from the exhaust port of the _Gambler's Ruin_ , then the ship disappeared into the stars.

Han Solo would not see his family again for twelve years.


	13. Epilogue: Ahch-to

_Twelve Years Later_

The wind picked up as she ascended the interminable stone staircase, carrying with it the briny vapor from the sea below. To Leia, the salty air was more oppressive than refreshing. She crossed her arms, wrapping her cloak tighter, and felt a violent thumping in her chest that had little to do with physical exertion. Nearing the top of the mountain island that was home to the ruins of the first Jedi Temple, her eyes flickered from one domed hut to the other. Crafted with care and precision centuries before from slabs of stone, the beehive-like structures that dotted the summit lay in various states of decay.

Her heart doubled its manic rhythm when she saw smoke curling from the roof of the dwelling closest to the cliff. Leia looked down the staircase feeling a twinge of vertigo. The light from double moons of Ahch-to illuminated the outline of the _Millennium Falcon_ , docked on the rocky shore. She closed her eyes and let her breath out in slow hiss.

Rey had contacted her at the base on D'Qar within hours of landing on the planet that had become the final destination of her brother's self-imposed exile.

 _"General Organa?"_

Leia was well-practiced at hiding her anxiety, but she was grateful for the grainy quality of the transmission that would filter out the tremor in her reply.

"Rey, did you find him?"

The image nodded, but wide eyes belied the girl's uncertainty.

"Is he okay?"

"Yes General. I have done what you said. I returned his lightsabre and asked him to join us on D'Qar."

"He won't come," Leia stated.

Rey shook her head.

"He says he has more work to do here."

Leia's jaw tensed and she swallowed the retort, demanding what _work_ he could possibly be doing in an abandoned monastery.

"Also…"

"What is it, Rey?"

"I asked him if he would be willing to take me on as a student. He said that I had potential, but he couldn't. He said… he said that there aren't going to _be_ any more Jedi."

"Oh Luke," she sighed.

"General Organa-

"Rey, please…"

"Sorry, Leia," Rey corrected herself with some hesitation. "I don't know what to do. I'm not used to this sort of thing. Master Skywalker has been very kind, but I think his mind is made up. I don't know what I can say to convince him."

Leia nodded.

"It's okay," she reassured her. "I should have expected that it wouldn't be so easy."

"Should Chewie and I return to the base?"

"No," Leia decided. "Not yet. Let him sleep on it. He may feel differently in the morning. It's a lot of information to process."

Rey let out an impatient sigh, but nodded her acquiescence.

"I'll contact you tomorrow, Rey."

"Yes ma'am. Goodnight… Leia."

"Goodnight Rey."

Now, after over a decade of separation, her twin was less than twenty feet away and it was taking every bit of strength she possessed not to fly down the steps back to her ship. There was too much to say and not enough time. He was supposed to come to her. That was how she had rehearsed it in her head over a dozen times. Leia knew she had it in her power to convince him to train Rey and return with her. The reasons she would give him, however, were too painful and would be told too late. Gods, was he ever going to forgive her?

She imagined her daughter, safe and asleep, on board the ship docked below her and steeled herself for the task ahead of her. She pulled up the hood of the white cloak, shielding her face against the unrelenting gale and closed the distance between her and her brother's home.

The glow of a fire filtered through the rough fabric of the curtain that had been drawn over the entrance to the hut. Leia pulled back the veil and stood in the doorway, blinking and peering into the shadows. As her eyes adjusted, she made out the form of a hooded figure seated behind the small campfire.

"I waited up for you."

The figure looked up and blue eyes met hers from beneath the umbra of the cape.

Her answer was something between a gasp and a laugh. She found that her knees had turned to water and she swayed on her feet.

"Leia!"

Luke was on his feet beside her before she could stop him and assure him that she was alright. For all the good it would have done. One look at his face and her composure shattered. Twelve years of separation and all of the loneliness that accompanied them overwhelmed her at once. Twelve years of choking down anger and swallowing her sadness welled to the surface. She could drown in all of the anguish she had dammed up inside of her.

Leia returned his tentative touch with a crushing embrace. She buried her face in his shoulder and screamed. Sobs racked her body and she collapsed on the hard earth, dragging him with her. He held her close and murmured into her ear. Her breath came in ragged gasps as she tried to make out his words.

"I'm sorry," he repeated over and over. "Leia, I'm so sorry."

"Why?" She whispered, when she could speak again. The single word carried with it a thousand questions.

 _Why did you leave me? Why didn't you come back? Why are you sorry? Because of Ben? Because of the children who died at his hands? Because you feel like you failed? Because of Han? Because you left me to fight a war alone?_

Luke pulled her away from him so he could look her in the eye. He studied her face, hearing all of her unasked questions, considering every one.

"I miss him too," he said at last. "I didn't know how much until I knew I'd never see him again."

Han.

Leia winced.

 _That, at least, was my fault._

Luke opened his mouth to contradict her and Leia cut him off. She did not want to talk about Han right now. She did not have enough time.

"Rey told me that you won't come back," she accused.

"I can't," he said. "Not yet."

"What are you looking for, Luke? What can possibly _be_ here on this empty planet that is going to help us to defeat Snoke?"

"It's not some _thing_ , Leia," he insisted. "It's what happened here. This is where it first happened. The division of Light and Dark. This was the first Jedi Temple. And Snoke was the first Jedi to fall."

"How do you know?"

"I can feel it, Leia," he explained. "When it's quiet here, sometimes late at night, I can hear them, feel them, the Jedi who witnessed Snoke's turn to the Dark Side. I'm so close to figuring out the source of his power and how to turn it against him. He's not like the Sith. He's a much older evil. He feeds on those with a connection to the Force."

Leia withdrew in revulsion.

"What do you mean?"

"Snoke takes students that have potential. He instructs them in the ways of the Dark Side and when they are at the height of their power, he drains it from them to sustain himself."

"That's how he's managed to survive for all of these years. That's why he wanted Ben," she muttered. "A Skywalker. Someone strong in the Force. Han knew he was just using him. He tried to tell him…"

Luke swallowed.

"Snoke has been doing this for a long time. Millennia. He has learned how to manipulate students to his side. He knows how to tell them what they want to hear."

"So how do we stop him?" Leia asked.

Luke shook his head.

"That's why I have to stay. I still have much to learn here."

"And Rey?" Leia continued. "Why won't you train her? You've sensed how strong she is. She needs guidance."

"I can't, Leia."

Her heart sank. Was he still punishing himself after all of these years? Did he really believe himself to be a failure?

"Luke," she started. "Stop holding yourself accountable for what happened with Ben. You have to know I don't blame you for that. I've blamed myself and Han and Vader, but in the end, Snoke sunk his claws into him from a young age. He twisted my son into someone I no longer recognize. Even once he's defeated, I don't know that Ben will come back. It'll be his choice. But whatever he chooses, you did your best. We all did. "

Luke gave no reply to that.

"Please tell me that's not the reason you left," she implored. "Tell me you weren't running away from me. I must have sent a dozen transmissions on our classified frequencies. Wherever you were, you had to have intercepted one of them. I told you it wasn't your fault."

"I heard them," he admitted. "But it took me a long time to believe it. Even if you didn't blame me, I still believed I should have seen the signs. I still believe that there were things I could have done to prevent him from going to Snoke. But I came to understand that even the Jedi of the Old Order couldn't have perceived the threat that he posed. He eluded them for centuries. Once he is defeated though, that'll be the end of it. And it will be the end of the Jedi as well."

"Why?" Leia demanded.

"Because every time someone lights a candle, they cast a shadow," Luke answered. "The Force is a power of Light and Dark. It creates its own balance. When Snoke is gone, the balance will shift to the Light. When I'm gone, that balance will be restored."

"And you think that it will really stop there?" Leia asked. "There won't be any other children born with abilities they don't understand? Who won't wake up in the middle of the night hearing voices that others can't hear? Children who will shatter every window in their house when they get angry or hurt people they love when they don't get their way? Luke, if you end the Jedi Order now, the only thing that will change is that people with that power won't have a teacher."

"Maybe you're right," she continued. "Maybe balance will be restored and the galaxy will forget the Jedi. But then what's to stop it all from starting over again? A new order of Force-sensitives will emerge, without any direction, like right here on this island."

"Maybe they'll get it right," Luke said softly.

"Until one of them falls," Leia retorted.

"Why…?" he let the question fall away, but Leia heard it just the same.

"What does it have to be you? Because you are a Skywalker," she answered.

Luke laughed bitterly, but she ignored him.

"We are born with a power we didn't ask for," she said. Of all of the times she had practiced this speech, it had never gone quite like this, but she was stumbling across a truth, discovering it as she spoke. She continued, trusting this innate wisdom to speak for her. "Sometimes we don't understand it and sometimes we fall. We do terrible things and we hurt the people we love."

He looked at her closely.

"But the few of us who have managed to get it right have to help the ones who can't," she said. "You taught me that, Luke. You know it better than any of us. It might be a curse, this power that we are given, but it's ours to bear. Yours, mine, Ben's… and Rey's."

The pink tinge colored her brother's cheeks and his eyes grew wide.

"What do you mean, Leia?"

"She's one of us, Luke," Leia said. She could hardly hear her own voice over the hammering of her pulse. "She's my daughter. And she's yours."

Time stopped at that moment. Luke blinked rapidly, trying to clear the sensation that his vision was shrinking to a pinpoint. What did she mean Rey was his daughter? And _hers_? That was impossible. There was that one time… but that was long before Endor. Years before Rey would have been born.

He studied her face, searching for an answer, some sort of hint as to how what she claimed could be possible. He saw only trepidation, anticipation. Fear radiated off of her in waves. She was afraid of how he would react. She was terrified. That scared him. If Leia had ever been afraid in her life, she had hidden it behind a resolute visage and layers of mental barriers.

What alarmed him the most, however, is that she was telling the truth. And now, once again, he felt the world being yanked out from under him.

"How?" He asked finally.

Bile churned in his stomach and welled in his throat as he listened to his sister explain what had happened while she had been a prisoner of the First Order. Disgust turned to horror as she told him about Snoke's plans to create a Force-sensitive from the bloodline of Anakin Skywalker, in the event that Ben proved a less-than-satisfactory apprentice.

"How- how did Snoke have access to my DNA?" He asked.

"I didn't know for a long time," Leia admitted. "Until Rey showed up with your lightsabre. There's still a lot I don't know. But whoever retrieved the lightsabre-

"My hand," Luke realized, cutting her off. "My hand would have been with the lightsabre."

The corners of Leia's mouth turned down and she nodded, taking in the stark gruesomeness of the situation now that he had given a voice to her suspicions.

"All they would have had to have done would be a DNA check on your hand through a non-secure server," she said. "Your gene sequence would have been stored in a government database, where it could be accessed, and replicated, if you didn't care about legal or ethical violations."

"Gods…"

"Rey is healthy," Leia added. "She might not have been, because we're… She doesn't have any genetic disorders."

Luke put his head between his hands and he sucked down gulps of air into oxygen-starved lungs. It was beyond grotesque. That his sister had been made into an incubator for some experiment of Snoke's was unthinkable. That he used Luke's genetic material to do it was monstrous and sadistic.

"Why in the worlds did you go through with it, Leia?"

She looked away from him. He cursed himself inwardly. It wasn't her he was angry with. He just needed to understand. Why go through all of that suffering, be subjected to that kind of psychological and physical pain, if she had a choice?

"Because I love her," Leia said softly. "I hated how she came to be in this world and I hate Snoke for what he did to me and to my family. But I could feel her and I knew she wasn't his. She's strong and full of Light. She's like you."

A moan escaped Luke's lips and he felt his strength fail him. She had had the child because it was his. Because she loved him. After he let Snoke seduce her son into Darkness with lies about Vader, she still loved him enough to bring his child into the world. And now she had brought her here, to give him another chance.

Not for the first time, he chastised Ben Kenobi. With all of his wisdom, the old man had still made the wrong decision. It should have been her rather than him. Leia would have been a far better Jedi than he was. She showed strength of character and compassion far beyond his own understanding.

"That's not true," her voice broke into his thoughts. "If it were up to me, Vader would have never been redeemed. I would have cut him down as soon as I got the chance. I probably still would. General Kenobi made the right choice, Luke. You've never given yourself the credit you deserve."

"Luke," she asked. "Can you forgive me?"

His head shot up. What could he possibly need to forgive her for?

"Forgive you for what?"

"For not telling you about Breha. Rey, I mean," she answered. "I wanted to tell you every day for the last twenty years. But, I couldn't give you a child just to take her away. I had to hide her somewhere Snoke could never find her. Also, I didn't want you to do what you are doing now."

"What am I doing?"

"Blaming yourself for something else that isn't your fault."

He gave a wet chuckle and his eyes spilled over.

"I don't need to forgive you. You were put in an impossible position. I'm only sorry that I wasn't there."

She inched over until she was seated beside him and he let himself relax against her shoulder. Silence hung in the air between them, punctuated only by the intermittent pops of wood burning in the fire.

"I missed you, Leia."

"I missed you, too."

The fire cooled to embers as the night wore on. Luke threw of kindling on and reshuffled the coals as Leia told him about Rey. She explained that she was born at the first proper base that the Resistance had and that she kept her for three weeks before giving her to a family with ties to the former Alliance. After that, she had gone to see her as often as she could get away without being detected by the First Order. She continued her story with Rey's disappearance, along with the _Falcon._

"Han promised that he would bring her back," she said. "It took fifteen years. I don't know what happened to her exactly, but she doesn't remember anything from before. She doesn't remember me or Han or Chewie. But he brought her back to me just like he promised. She became quite attached to him in the short time they were together. I think he liked her too."

"Of course he did. She's yours."

She smiled tightly and looked up at the ceiling. He watched as she blinked back the tears she was determined to not let fall.

In the late hours of the night, he held her tightly against his chest as she slept, feeling the reassuring rhythm of her heartbeat. After over a decade of solitude, the intimate proximity, and the love that accompanied it, was almost painful. Even more so, since he knew that she would soon be gone. He felt the familiar tug in his gut that heralded another departure. They had had to say goodbye too many times. Who knew how much time either of them had left?

As the first light of day peaked through the hut's entrance, he pressed his lips to the crown of her head and she stirred.

"Mmm, is it morning?" She asked.

"Almost," he whispered.

"I have to go," she said. "She shouldn't see me here. I docked my shuttle at the other edge of the island. I should go before she wakes up."

Luke nodded and released her. A chill crept in and settled in the pocket of warmth she had occupied.

He joined her outside the hut in the dim, pink light of morning. Although she had only slept a few hours, she seemed more relaxed than she had the night before. Years seemed to have melted away from her face and her eyes seem to shine like they did in his memories of her.

She turned to him and wrapped him in one last embrace.

"Take care of her, Luke," she murmured in his ear.

"I will," he promised.

"Please, don't blame her because of what was done to me or because of where she came from. She doesn't know any of that. It's not who she is."

He pulled back and made sure to look her in the eye to reassure her.

"I don't and I will not," he said. "But what do I tell her, Leia?"

"Tell her about the Force," she replied. "Be her teacher. That's what she needs right now."

"I hope it's enough."

"It will be," she assured him. She squeezed his hand and turned to go.

"Leia!" He called after her. "I—Thank you."

"For what?"

"For her," he said.

"I love you," she answered, smiling in the morning sun. "And I expect to see you again soon."

"You will," he agreed. "Until then, I'll look after her."

"I know."

He watched her steps until she was out of sight. From the far end of the island, he heard the whir of her shuttle's sub-light engine. Moments later, the ship punched through the atmosphere of the small planet, leaving a vapor trail in its wake.

Luke sighed and turned his attention to the still form of the _Millennium Falcon_ docked in the bay. Rey would be getting up soon. He had to get ready. They both had work to do.


End file.
